For over 20 years Chattanooga-area tennis teams would pack up their equipment on a Monday and make the trek out of town for the state prep tennis championships.
But for the first time since 2002, those same teams get to sleep in their own beds this week.
Chattanooga was the birthplace of Spring Fling, an Olympic-style event where baseball, softball, soccer, tennis and track teams would all gather in a specific city to compete for state championships. The Scenic City held the event from 1994-2002 before it moved to Memphis for the next three years. It’s been in Murfreesboro since 2006, but things will be broken up this year for the first time in over 30 years as the event will be held in three different primary locations over the next two weeks.
Baseball, soccer and softball will be in Murfreesboro next week, while the track championships will be held in Knoxville — decathlon and pentathlon this week and the rest of the events next week — leaving tennis to compete for titles this week at the Champions Club.
Only two coaches who were around the last time Chattanooga hosted remain: GPS head coach Sue Bartlett and McCallie assistant Eric Voges, who was the Blue Tornado head coach from 1987-2016.